The results of a clinical trial showed that a lens used to treat cataracts can also help treat glaucoma. Researchers reported - during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), in New Orleans, from October 9 to 12, 2026 - that these artificial lenses contain small parts saturated with bimatoprost - a drug commonly used to treat glaucoma - which is gradually released into the eye.
The researchers found that after a year, eye pressure levels in patients who received these lenses were similar to those recorded in patients who received standard lenses to treat cataracts and used eye drops twice daily to treat glaucoma. The researchers added that more than 95 percent of patients who used the drug-releasing lens no longer needed any other medications to treat glaucoma after a year.
Dr. Jeffrey Kammer, a researcher and ophthalmologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, United States, said in a statement on Tuesday: “Imagine being able to treat two of the most common eye diseases - cataracts and glaucoma - in one procedure. “There is simply nothing like this currently in development.”
Glaucoma causes vision loss due to high fluid pressure inside the eye, which leads to damage to the optic nerve. Reducing this pressure is the only medically proven way to slow the progression of the disease, and patients are usually prescribed to use eye drops daily as a first step in treatment.
However, committing to using drops once or twice a day is a challenge. The researchers point out that “using eye drops on a regular daily basis may be difficult.”
Cataract
On the other hand, many older people also suffer from cataracts, a condition that involves the clouding of the eye's natural lens. Researchers have indicated that cataract surgery and implantation of replacement lenses has become one of the most common and reliable surgical procedures in the world. This inspired the researchers with an idea: Why are artificial lenses not supplied with medications to treat glaucoma?
“The idea of a drug-releasing lens that provides continued treatment after cataract surgery is very compelling,” Kamer said.
The researchers included 106 people who suffered from glaucoma, or high fluid pressure inside the eye, and were scheduled to undergo cataract surgery. Three-quarters of the patients were randomly distributed to receive lenses that were designed to deliver either a low or high dose of the drug bimatoprost. The remaining quarter of patients received a standard replacement lens, followed by the use of timolol drops (a medication to treat glaucoma) twice daily.
The results showed that after a year, eye pressure had decreased to 15.9 mmHg in the group that received the higher dose, to 14.8 mmHg in the group that received the lower dose, and to 15.7 mmHg in the group that used the standard lens and eye drops. “I was encouraged, rather than surprised, that the results after 12 months matched the initial results in human trials,” Kammer said. Observing similar results across these studies provides reassuring evidence that the therapeutic effect is successfully replicated as the program progresses.”
The researchers indicated that patients participating in this trial will be followed for 3 years, and two larger clinical trials are currently underway. “Long-term follow-up is important to understand the continuity of intraocular pressure control as well as to assess safety,” Kammer concluded, adding: “Glaucoma treatment is moving toward solutions that may make management of the disease simpler.”
A research team led by University College London (UCL) has discovered a new species of dinosaur, based on a fossil found on the English Isle of Wight.
According to their research paper published in the Royal Society Open Science journal on Tuesday, this dinosaur belongs to a group of agile, bipedal carnivores known as megaraptors. It is described as a predatory creature with long claws and the size of a large tiger, and it is the first species of this group to be discovered in Europe.
The fossil of this discovery - part of the back of the skull - was acquired by the Natural History Museum in London in 1924, but had remained neglected and not studied until recently.
Professor Paul Barrett, lead researcher on the study and a specialist at the British Natural History Museum, said: “Despite collecting operations that have continued for more than 200 years, the Isle of Wight continues to surprise us with new species of dinosaurs, noting that finding carnivorous dinosaurs, such as (Infectibella rex) - was particularly rare and difficult to obtain.”
Mysterious megaraptors.
Megaraptors are the most mysterious of the large carnivorous dinosaurs, due to the rarity of finding their fossils. It is believed that it originated in Asia, before it migrated through Europe and became one of the top predators in the southern landmass known as “Gondwana,” which included Africa, South America, and Antarctica in the present era. However, this theory has so far lacked substantial fossil evidence, as no remains of megaraptors have previously been found in Europe.
Megaraptors are closely related to Tyrannosaurus dinosaurs (including Tyrannosaurus rex), but they had slender heads and attacked their prey using their large arms and huge, curved claws rather than their jaws.
While some species have grown to enormous sizes - just like tyrannosaurs - this new species is one of the smallest and also the oldest discovered in this group; It lived in the United Kingdom during the Early Cretaceous period, about 120 million years ago. It was named Invictibellatrix amberina, which means “invincible warrior,” in honor of the role that megaraptors played as predators at the top of the food pyramid.
“This new species is the first evidence we have that megaraptors were also present in Europe,” said Charlie Shearer, a co-author of the study and a doctoral student in the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London.
The study did not explain the reason for the likely extinction of megaraptors in the north, but this may have been the result of climate or environmental changes, or due to the presence of competing predators such as other types of tyrannosaurs.
Dr Cassius Morrison, from the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London, and the lead researcher of the study, said: “Based on what we know about its closest relatives, Infectibellatrix was between three and four meters long, and just over a meter and a half high. It likely had feathers, and the length of its claws ranged between 10 and 20 centimetres. It fed on small dinosaurs, lizards and mammals, occupying a role in the food chain similar to the role of the hyena today.
Morrison added: “This dinosaur was not the most powerful predator of its time, but to humans, this dinosaur would have posed a greater threat than Tyrannosaurus rex. We would have been ideal-sized prey for him, weighing about a third of his body weight, and he would certainly have chased us.”
The Doha Film Festival 2026 revealed the participation of 22 films in the “International Short Film Competition,” whose stories highlight the rapidly changing forms of life and fluctuations in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, and Yemen, all the way to the “Amazon forests” in Peru, and the rural areas of Indonesia. These works also reflect the vitality of short film making as a “space for testing and discovery,” and the telling of real-time stories that matter to the world.
In its next session, which will be held in the Qatari capital, Doha, from November 19 to 27, the festival will witness the screening of two films for the first time globally, and 19 films that will be shown for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa region, as part of the international “short films” competition, through which the makers present visions that shed light on “personal experiences,” “collective history,” and the complexities that prevail in the world.
For her part, Fatima Hassan Al-Rumaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute and Director of the Doha Film Festival, stressed in a press statement on Wednesday that “short films give their makers the freedom to engage in courageous creative experiments, challenge traditional stereotypes, and present new visions on the screen,” adding: “They are a strong reminder that cinema does not need massive production to leave a lasting impact, and at Doha Film Festival, we celebrate this spirit based on experience and discovery.”
Fatima Hassan Al Rumaihi explained that this year’s International Short Film Competition celebrates the diversity of independent cinema and its creative power, stressing that “the selected films stem from their local communities and experiences, while at the same time addressing issues and experiences that transcend borders.”
The list of films selected to participate in the International Short Film Competition 2026 includes the films “Record of the Forgotten,” from India, by director Soumya Mukhopadhyay, “Some Events on the Banks of the River,” a co-production between France and Portugal, by Daniel Soares, “A Sweet Day” from Iran, by Omid Abdullah, and “Another Day Will Come,” a co-production between Palestine, Lebanon, and Qatar, by Aida Qadan, and “Fo Bijoux” from France. “Lebanon,” by Jesse Musallam, “The Forgotten Astronaut,” produced by Afghanistan and the United Kingdom, by Ilham Ehsas, “Ghazal Sarkh,” from Iran, the United Kingdom, and France, by Maryam Tafkary, “Imagine Me a Homeland of Love,” from the Netherlands, Yemen, and Qatar, by Thanaa Farouk, “In Another Palestine,” produced by Peru and Germany, by Layela Gottlieb, “Journey to Paradise,” from Indonesia, by Kenny Goulardi, and “Chufu,” from Egypt. France, Sweden and Canada, by Mahmoud Assi, and “Like a Shooting Star,” a joint production between Qatar and France, by Nadia Al Khater.
In the same context, the film “Nothing Happens After Your Absence” from Sudan, by Ibrahim Omar, “Dark,” a co-production between Indonesia and the Netherlands, by Timotheus Angawan Kosno, “Legacy” from Tunisia, by Youssef El-Handous, “Fourteenth,” a co-production between France, Belgium, and Egypt, by directors Sameh Alaa and Robin Wouters, “The Wind Between Us” from the Netherlands, by Ali Askari, and “To the North” from Palestine, participates in the film. By Amer Nasser, “We Have the Right to Love Autumn,” a joint production between Sweden, Palestine, and Tunisia, by Amani Jaafar, “Whispers of a Burning Smell,” produced by Somalia, Austria, and Germany, by Mo Harrawi, “For Competitors,” produced by Mexico, Chile, France, and the United Kingdom, by Federico Luis, winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at Cannes 2026, and “Moments of Happiness,” produced by France and the United Kingdom. And Lebanon by Shaden Safi Al-Din Tazi, winner of the “Best Short Film” award in the Horizons section of “Venice”.
Commenting on the interest in showing films that highlight life topics from the reality of local and international communities in “film festivals,” art critic Safaa Al-Laithi affirmed that “the interest of festivals in presenting issues that shed light on people’s lives is natural,” pointing out that “cinema is the closest art to expressing reality in a way that reaches the point of documentation, by paying attention to the immediate problems that people suffer from.”
Safaa Al-Laithi confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that this type of film is widely attractive to critics and the public, but she explained that embodying reality and highlighting it artistically is rarely a means of solution, but it is effective in monitoring the problem, raising awareness, and increasing information by watching a story for a certain period of time instead of following hours of news. “Best Short Film” will win a prize worth $20,000, “Best Director” will win a prize worth $12,000, while “Best Acting Performance” will win $7,000.
